The Way Things Are

MoonHowler

Moonhowlings.net is a moderate blog site.  You will find that we have a few liberal leanings, a few conservative leanings, but mostly we are centrist.  We have made that clear from the beginning, back when we were on Antibvbl, and nothing has changed here.  Our objective is to post engaging topics about current events that people want to discuss in a civil manner. 

Unfortunately, for the past week or so we have felt that discussion simply was not productive.  Some people felt it was appropriate to come to our blog and insult us, deride us, and attempt to bully not only us but some of our contributors.  That simply is not going to happen. 

If an article is posted that you don’t like.  Don’t read it.  We can’t please everyone nor will we try to please everyone.

If you think we are too stupid, too conservative, too liberal, too middle of the road, too old, too female, too biased then it is probably best to find another blog.  We are also not going to change.  We welcome people who come here to discuss ideas both in the framework of our posts or on our weekly open thread.  Please debate ideas and don’t engage in ad hominem attacks. 

Occasionally we will have politicians that we find unacceptable.  We will make no bones about it.   That is part of political debate.  We feel certain that you have political preferences also.  Please try to not make libelous statements. 

When someone’s politics cause disruption on the blog, we will have to ask the person to find another blog. It is in the best interest of the blog and its users.  Any questions, email us.  If you don’t hear back from us, mention it on the blog.  We have had a problem with email. 

Hopefully we can move forward with spirited debate and discussion in a way that is respectful to everyone here.

Fondly,

Moon & Elena

The Chairman Speaks ….Open Mouth…Insert Foot

MoonHowler

corey2

By now, everyone knows about the Coffee Party.  There were meet-ups all over the United States last Saturday.  People got together to discuss the direction they wanted their local, state and national governments to go. 

A reporter with the Gainesville Times,   Dan Roem, covered the meet-up out in Haymarket last Saturday.  He reported that our BOCS chairman had the following to say about his constituents who gathered to discuss a more productive government:

Despite its call for civility in political discourse, not everyone is buying into the movement, particularly Stewart.

“The Coffee Partiers are a bunch of fruitcakes,” Stewart told the Times on Sunday. “Yeah, they’re a bunch of nuts. If they’re going to be a coffee party, they’ll be a hazelnut party.”

Stewart elaborated, saying the Coffee Party is “just a phase; it’ll disappear.”

He derided Byler, whose 2007 films portrayed Stewart as being a right-wing ideologue, asking at one point, “Does (Byler) have a job?”

Byler said he does not have a full-time job but has earned income from college speaking engagements during the last couple years after striking it rich in Los Angeles making romantic dramas from 2002 to 2006.

Stewart described the Tea Partiers as patriots “concerned about the direction of the country and about the vast amount of spending that happening.” He called the Tea Party a “legitimate movement” while saying the Coffee Party is “just a load of crap.”

When asked to respond to the inevitable accusation that his comments are the type of discourse Coffee Party participants are fighting against, Stewart replied, “It’s more important to be honest than polite.”

Corey must be looking for this year’s scare tactic so he can get elected. More ‘honest than polite?’ Not really. Some people would say or do anything to get elected, or re-elected.

Nothing else needs to be said. Corey has said it all. Is he speaking for the entire BOCS?

No Exorcisms Performed on Pedophile Priests

MoonHowler

The Rev. Gabriele Amorth, age 85, has an unusual job to do at the Vatican.  He is the chief Exorcist.    While this subject might seem strange for a blog, it is another sign of change that has gone on within the Roman Catholic Church.  Back in the day, exorcisms weren’t discussed.  The Church barely admitted to performing them.  According to CNN.com:

 

“The devil tempts everyone — people in politics, in economics, in sport. And naturally, he tempts, above all, the religious leaders, so you shouldn’t be surprised if the devil tempts those in the Vatican. That’s his job.”

The Rev. Gabriele Amorth isn’t speaking metaphorically when he says that. The 85-year-old priest means people can be tempted and literally possessed by Satan.

“It’s not my opinion: I’m saying that if you believe in the Gospels, you believe in the existence of the devil, in the devil’s power to possess people,” he said in an interview with CNN.

The faithful believe “that there are people possessed by the devil, and … in the power of exorcism to liberate from the devil,” he said.

And as the Vatican’s chief exorcist, it’s his job to expel the devil when someone is possessed. He’s performed more than 70,000 exorcisms in his career, he estimates.

But there is a difference between possession — where the devil takes hold of someone’s body and actions — and temptation, where Satan lures a person into doing evil, he said.

Father Amorth believes the pedophile priests have been tempted by the devil, not possessed by the devil.   He has never performed an exorcism on a pedophile priest.  Now the pedophile priest scandal is spreading in Europe in countries like Ireland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, Father Amorth feels that is important to note the difference.  He does admit that he has done exorcisms on priests who have been molested by the devil but he does not elaborate on that. 

Father Amorth says he sees only good people in the Vatican.  Speaking of pedophile priests, he says:  

“They don’t need exorcism, they need to be converted, to be converted to God, that’s what they need. They need to confess, they need true penitence, true repentance, that’s what they need. They’re not possessed.”

But no one is too strong a believer to be possessed, Amorth said.

Good for the Catholic Church for finally talking publicly about the ritual of exorcism.  Back in the early 70s when William Peter Blatty first wrote The Exorcist,  the ritual was shrouded in mystery.  The novel was written on an actual case of a possessed boy who lived in Mt. Rainer, Md.  Blatty spoke at the time of the difficulty he had doing the research.  The Church simply did not release information on this subject. 

It seems that now the Church has been forced to discuss the pedophilia that has gone on and exorcisms.  Sunlight is probably a good thing.  Darn that was a terrifying movie!

Tom Hanks Steps in a Racial Hornet’s Nest

MoonHowler

Tom Hanks has set off a firestorm over racism that is impacting the new HBO miniseries, “The Pacific.” Listen to both videos:

Not smart, Tom. not smart. Maybe in 30 years he could say that but there are far too many people from that era still alive to say WWII was  racist. I thought we were at war with Japan because they bombed Pearl Harbor. I think most Americans thought the same. Was there racism, if you want to call it that, because we were at war with Japan? Of course. Caricatures developed immediately of our enemies in both war theatres.  Terms were used like Kraut, Japs, zipperheads, etc.  I don’t know if you can actually call it racism when you are at war with someone. I think it might take on a different term.  War words? 

Much of WWII involved racism. Racism is easy. When one has difficulty verbalizing why they hate another human being, racism is far easier than rational thought. And let’s face it, it is pretty difficult to kill someone, a lot of someones without a little hate being brought into the mix. However, WWII did not start because Americans hate the Japanese for racial reasons. Racial stereotyping certainly developed. However, in a world where the Chinese and Koreans were being killed and tortured it is pretty difficult to evoke racism.

It is also very difficult to paint Americans as racist when 6 million Jews were being annihilated across the Atlantic for racist reasons, even though they were the same race as their executioner. Go figure. Perhaps racism is definitely the wrong word.

Tom Hanks needs to reword his remarks. The “Greatest Generation” doesn’t need to go out of this world being called racist. The was lots of racism back then. I have my father’s letters lamenting that an Indian soldier could not go into a bar and buy a drink in 1945. There was no mention that our troops were segregated. I questioned my mother who didn’t have an answer. We have races of people being herded into concentration camps and killed then incinerated because they were ethnically different in the eyes of their captors. We have political enemies facing the same fate. We have women of similar racial background being pressed into prostitution because of their national difference. The world was turned upside down. Some of that same hatred lives on. Getting into whether something is or is not racist really helps nothing. The best thing to do is simply move on. Hanks has put his foot in it. He also discusses terrorism. He doesn’t want to go there either.

Tom Hanks has been a wonderful spokes person for the ‘Greatest Generation.’  I hope they don’t fire him and that he alters his message just a little bit since he has so many people upset.

The Board was ‘Aghast’….

MoonHowler

flag
The content in the following thread is purely the opinion of the author..

Some of our contributors want a thread on the sins of Frank Principi, Supervisor, Woodbridge Magisterial District, regarding the homeless.  The story is in the News and Messenger.   You will have to read it there.  It is far too convoluted to summarize here.  Basically, Supervisor Principi supposedly met with community leaders when he heard that a homeless shelter was way over capacity in hopes of finding solutions.  The Chair, Corey Stewart moved into executive session at the last BOCS meeting and the problem was discussed.  What has surfaced is a newspaper article that has more holes in it than a slice of Swiss cheese, rumor and innuendo about sex offenders being placed in schools with school children and Mr. Principi’s fiefdom.

For starters, Virginia Law is rather specific about what executive session can and cannot be used for.  Mr. Principi is not an errant employee being taken to task for misdeeds.  What was the justification for going in to executive session?  (MoM might fill us in here on this one…calling on MoM!)    Secondly, if a situation is discussed in executive session, why is it now in the newspaper?  By definition, if a situation warrants executive session, isn’t there some responsibility to keep the content of the session private?

Thirdly, if the matter didn’t belong in executive session, where is the sunshine?  A full disclosure with all the facts needs to be given to the residents of Prince William County.  Right now, the issue is a whisper campaign on steroids and good people get hurt when this sort of story takes on a life of its own. 

I certainly hope the supervisors were as ‘aghast’ when the Chairman ordered the Chief of Police back to his office rather than going to a scheduled town hall meeting  to educate the immigrant  community on changes in the county law. The Chairman also demanded that a laundry list of questions be answered in an hour’s time and  acted on his own accord.  Additionally, I hope that the supervisors were equally ‘aghast’ when they saw their private email to the chairman   appear on a local blog (not this one I might add) without their permission, hours after it had been sent.  There had not been sufficient time for a FOIA request to be made.  The directive and list of questions to the chief was also on that same blog.  Did any of them question the appropriateness of that behavior?

I smell a big election rat behind this story.  Someone wants to get re-elected (best Jon Stewart voice).   Whether Mr. Principi violated protocol or not, it sounds like his heart was in the right place and that he sought solutions to a very real problem involving real human beings.  He looked outside of government fixing every problem and sought the resources of the community, the churches and the private sector.  For that, he is to be commended.  A simple discussion of protcol handles the other stuff.

Drug Violence in Mexico Gets Worse and Worse: Americans Assassinated by Drug Lords

MoonHowler

The violence caused by warring drug cartels in Mexico is worsening by the day.  Over the weekend, Americans were targeted and killed.  When does it end? 

According to the NYTimes:

UNIÓN, Mexico — Gunmen believed to be linked to drug traffickers shot a pregnant American consulate worker and her husband to death in the violence-racked border town of Ciudad Juárez over the weekend, leaving their baby wailing in the back seat of their car, the authorities said Sunday. The gunmen also killed the husband of another consular employee and wounded his two young children.  

Gunmen killed an American consulate worker and her husband in Ciudad Juárez. Their baby was found in the back seat.

 

Reuters

The New York Times

The F.B.I. was sending agents to Ciudad Juárez on Sunday.

The shootings took place minutes apart and appeared to be the first deadly attacks on American officials and their families by Mexico’s powerful drug organizations, provoking an angry reaction from the White House. They came during a particularly bloody weekend when nearly 50 people were killed nationwide in drug-gang violence, including attacks in Acapulco as American college students began arriving for spring break.

The Mexican govenment has 10,000 troops in border towns. Secretary of Clinton has sent strong warnings to the Meixican government. Triggering the drug trafficking is competition over the American drug market. What steps can be taken to cut down on Americans and American interests being harmed by this continuing violence? it all seems rather hopeless. Americans use drugs, human beings are greedy. Where is the weak link here?

State will dip into pension fund, repay with 7.5% interest

MoonHowler

The Virginia General Assembly just couldn’t help itself.  It had to put the sticky fingers into the pension fund before closing for the session. 

The State of Virginia is helping itself to more than $620 MILIION  that belongs in the state pension fund, VRS, to pay pensions to state employees, some  county employees and teachers.  Virginia must begin to pay back the money by 2013 at an interest rate of 7.5% over 10 years. 

Predictable.  So the state who must have a balanced budget doesn’t really have one and the Emperor has no clothes.  According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

 

The provision, sought by the state Senate and included in the joint budget adopted by the General Assembly yesterday, is aimed at easing jitters over the decision to defer state and local payments to pension plans for the portion of future retirement liabilities that aren’t funded by the system.

Sen. Walter A. Stosch, R-Henrico, called the provision the most important step taken by the assembly to protect the retirement system, even as it relies on deferred pension contributions for almost one-fourth of the money used to balance the two-year budget.

“I don’t want anybody to feel that their pension is in jeopardy, because it isn’t,“ Stosch said yesterday. “But we’re recognizing the unfunded liability and requiring it to be repaid.“

But that wasn’t the only important step taken by the legislature to guard the $48 billion retirement system. It also adopted a package of changes that will lower the cost of pensions for future employees by more than $50 million in the next two years and $3 billion over a decade.

The above sounds like politico-speak for “I’m from the government and I am here to help you.”  The warm, fuzzy feeling just isn’t there if you have anything to do with the $48 Billion  VRS.   This sounds like the government doing what the government does best:  Robbing Peter to pay Paul.  However, there is no free lunch.  Retirement ages will increase and a greater part of employee contributions will come of the the employee’s pocket.  

This house of cards doesn’t sound like the foundation is real firm:

House budget officials had argued that the deferral would not harm the retirement system because of benefit changes that would reduce long-term costs and a likely recovery of stock market investments.

The VRS lost 21% of its assets during the free fall of 2008.  Actually, it ended up better than most individuals.  However, I don’t think our lawmakers should be gambling pension money away on the shaky premise that the stock market earnings are going to take up the slack. 

Part 2 will continue when more unfolds about the great robbery of 2010.  (subtitle:  Public Employees:  This will only Hurt for the Rest of Your Lives)  They just couldn’t keep their grubby mitts out of the pension fund.  News is sketchy at this point on the great robbery.  If the Washington Post even mentioned it, I didn’t see it.  The budget news is overwhelmingly horrible.

NOT ANY MORE. DADDY HAS HIS HAND IN THE POT.

Moonhowlings discussion of “Constantine’s Sword”

Elena

I came upon this movie, Constantines Sword, quite by accident, while uploading movies to watch instantly on the T.V.  I was profoundly fascinated, not just by the storyteller and his narrative, but the journey of Christianity and its intersection with Judaism, throughout history.   For me, the movie was truly moving, in a very personal sense.  When it was over, I wondered, how is it possible that the Jewish religion has survived?  What dedication must it have taken to continue the traditions under such heavy persecution. 

In the end, I came away feeling even more strongly that religion is more often than not, misused and abused.  That the most important message, from almost all religions, “love they neighbor as thyself” too often becomes, well, completely forgotten.

 One fact that was truly an eye opener was the use of the cross. Now, as a Jewish person, not knowing much about Christianity, I just always assumed it was because Christ was crucified on the cross. Could it be true, that Constantine had this vision when looking up into the blue sky, 300 years after Jesus’s death, of a cross in the sky, a vison he would replicate by crossing his swords?   Once he conquered his enemies, believing Christ had been the reason he had vanquished his enemy, the symbol of the cross would now be used to represent all Christians. 

I look forward to the discussion!!!

Constantine’s Sword website

Movie Speak at Moonhowlings

MoonHowler

REMINDER:  Constantine’s Sword

Discussion begins tomorrow, Monday, March 15.

Elena and I recommend movies to each other off of Netflix.  We have both enjoyed the fact that we can just drag them down from cyberspace and watch on the computer when we want to. 

We have decided to try out a new idea on the blog,  We will announce a movie and dedicate a thread to it a week later.  Those who want to watch and discuss, great.  Those who don’t, no problem.  We will suggest the first film and hopefully contributors will suggest additional films that they have enjoyed.  The only rules right now are that it has to be a film that you can watch instantly on Netflix. 

This week’s film:  Constantine’s Sword

The thread will go up next Monday for discussion. 

 

Let us know by comment what you all think of this new blog twist.

New Jersey WWII Hero Inspires Hollywood Epic

MoonHowler

Reminder:  “The Pacific” begins tonight @ 9:00 HBO.

A personal piece on people you will meet during the viewing of ‘The Pacific.’

What a wonderful tribute!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

His brother  and the town must be very proud.  What a wonderful way to honor all those who have served from that town in New Jersey.

UFO Sightings –10th Night in a Row ~~I Want to Believe~~

MoonHowler

These incidences are being reported on both MSNBC and Fox News (For the doubters). More Bizarro World!

Mufon investigators are out on the scene. They can’t debunk it either. 10% of sightings really are unidentified objects. The remaining 90% are hoaxes.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In the words of Fox Mulder, I want to believe!

Any ideas? What do most people thing? Is it possible that we are not alone? How about Roswell? Was that a hoax or a huge government cover up? How many people really believe there are alien UFOs but don’t want to admit it because they don’t want to be seen as kooks or conspiracy theory nutwings?

And on the subject of bizarro world, there was a 6.x earthquake in Japan this morning. Aren’t there a lot of large earthquakes happening recently? It seems like a big one occurs once a week somewhere. What gives?

Happy ∏ Day 3.14

MoonHowler

Today is March 14 and it is a day filled with mystery because of ∏ (Pi).  Pi is often represented as 3.14  or 22/7 although we KNOW that isn’t really accurate.  We haven’t had a totally geeky topic for a while so here are a few brief facts about ∏.  A big thanks to Gainesville Resident  for sending the article to me. 

From CNN:

Pi, the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle, has captivated imaginations for thousands of years — perhaps even since the first person tried to draw a perfect circle on the ground or wondered how to construct something round like a wheel. Approximately 3.14, the number has its own holiday on March 14 — 3-14, get it? — which also happens to be Albert Einstein’s birthday.

and

The holiday has gained popularity worldwide every year during the last decade as enthusiasm has spread on the Web, said David Blatner, author of “The Joy of Pi.”

FACTS ABOUT PI

Geometry: Half the circumference of a circle with a radius of 1 is exactly pi
Record for calculation: 2.7 trillion digits (by Fabrice Bellard, December 2009)
Record for memorization:67,890 digits (by Chao Lu, 2005)
How random? There are no occurences of the sequence 123456 in the first million digits of pi

Source: “The Joy of Pi,” Pi World Ranking List

One of the oldest, if not the first, established Pi Day celebrations is at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California, which boasts 22 years of pi mayhem. The day is even recognized by the U.S. government: Last March, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution supporting Pi Day and encouraging schools to teach children about the number.

and still more…

Despite efforts to calculate pi by everyone from Archimedes to Sir Isaac Newton to present-day mathematicians with supercomputers, there is still no formula that would allow you to figure out, in base 10, any digit of pi without having to calculate everything that came before it. In other words, if you wanted to know the 24,000th digit, there’s no way of figuring that out without putting down all 23,999 numbers before it. Such calculations can be done in binary, but it’s not so interesting to know whether it’s just a 0 or a 1.

Mathematicians know that pi is irrational — it cannot be represented as one number divided by another — and transcendental, meaning it is not algebraic. That means, theoretically, that its digits will continue on indefinitely without ending in repetition — in other words, the digits won’t suddenly continue infinitely as 5s after 3 trillion digits (Pi’s digits were calculated out to a record 2.7 trillion places in December by French computer scientist Fabrice Bellard).

 


 

More can be found out about mystery number Pi at CNN.com

NCLB on Steroids?

MoonHowler

And speaking of NCLB on steroids, the President announced his intentions to overhaul NCLB and our education system. From the White House:

The President discusses his blueprint for an updated Elementary and Secondary Education Act to overhaul No Child Left Behind, the latest step from his Administration to encourage change and success in America’s schools at the local level.

Another “feels good/looks good on paper” unfunded mandate on the horizon, it sounds like. As titillating as Texas Hold ’em on Texas objectives is, this situation is far more serious. This appears to be another huge, omnibus education plan where one size fits all.

Here is the link to the Core Curriculum State Standards Initiative. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

When the politicians and the ivory tower gang admits that not every child learns at the same rate, the same depth, the same material, and for the same reasons all kids will be better off.   This concept is not rocket science.  Cookie cutter expectations must stop.  A kid with a reading disability is expected to learn the same material that a gifted child learns, in the same amount of time.  What’s wrong with this picture?

Scrap NCLB.  It was a good idea gone bad.

Texas Conservatives Dominate the Texas Curriculum

MoonHowler
Texas curriculum Revisions
Some highlights of new social studies standards adopted by the Texas State Board of Education:
  • Adds references to “laws of nature and nature’s God” to a section in U.S. history that requires students to explain major political ideas.
  • Replaces “democratic” in references to the form of U.S. government with “constitutional republic.”
  • In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specifies a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class.
  • Requires economics students to “analyze the decline of the U.S. dollar including abandonment of the gold standard.”
  • Ensures that students learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”
  • In teaching about the civil rights movement, students must learn about the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent approach.
  • Specifies that Germans and Italians were interned in the United States as well as the Japanese during World War II, to counter the idea that the internment of Japanese was motivated by racism.
  • Requires that the history of McCarthyism include “how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government.” The Venona papers were transcripts of some 3,000 communications between the Soviet Union and its agents in the United States.
  • In sociology, requires the teaching of “the importance of personal responsibility for life choices” in a section on teen suicide, dating violence, sexuality, drug use and eating disorders.
    		•
    Associated Press and New York Times

    In addition  students also will use A.D. and B. C. instead of C.E. and B.C.E.  According to MSNBC:

    In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specified a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class.

    Conservatives also included a plank to ensure that students learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association,” …

    Why are objectives being decided by politicians?  How about professionals in the various fields of study being the leaders with a good sprinkling of teachers, psychologists (to remind everyone of age appropriateness) and parents revising the curriculum.  What you learn should not be political.  Objectives should be neutral and not based on who won the last election.  If there is a bright side, because of technology advances in the printing industry, states can tailor some of their own curriculum and Texas will not have as much influence as it has had in the past.

    The Hispanic community felt very under-represented according to the New York Times:

    Battles over what to put in science and history books have taken place for years in the 20 states where state boards must adopt textbooks, most notably in California and Texas. But rarely in recent history has a group of conservative board members left such a mark on a social studies curriculum.

    Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state’s large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, “They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”

    “They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians,” she said. “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.”

    The curriculum standards will now be published in a state register, opening them up for 30 days of public comment. A final vote will be taken in May, but given the Republican dominance of the board, it is unlikely that many changes will be made.

    One thing not made clear in the last post about Texas textbooks is that the meetings held last week were about curriculum changes.  The textbook companies will all try to accommodate these changes.  In the past, California offset the more conservative Texas.  That has not happened because of California’s financial woes.

    What objectives are just unacceptable?  Which show political bias?  Which are welcome changes?

    (The scroll box is easier to read if you increase the size of the page to 125%  found bottom right hand corner of the page)

    New York Times has more on the story.